Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1887-05-06
WHEN NIAeARA WAS DRY.
a Remarkable Day, Forty Years Ago. In
tho History Of tile Great Cataract.


tho History Of tite Great CntaTaet.
Thirty mine yeair ago next spring,"
said mn old resident of This village, ,'a
sight was witnessed ut the falls of Mag.
ara that had never been soen before, Mt
least by people then on earth. and in all
probability sucha sight will never bewit-
messed again. 1t was nothing moro nor
less than tho running dry of tho great
cataract, or at least so nearly dry that it
Is no cHagseration to call it GO, in which
condition tho fnllsrcmaincd for one whole
day.
Tho winter of iS4S had been ono of
the coldest,o on record, and such leo has
never been known ON Lake Eric since, 1
guess, as formed that season. It was Of
enormous thickness. 1t was quito lato in
tho spring before the ice was loosencd,
even about the shores OF tho lako. Ono
day think it was near tho end of
April-a very stiff northcastcrly wind
came up, and its forco was so great that
it moved the great fields of ice, then en-
tircly separated from tho shores, up tho
lake, piling the fioes i'll great hanks as
they moved. The sight of those leo
banks is described yet by those who wit
messed it rs ono Of most awful grandeur
Toward night the wind changed suddenly
to the opposite quarter, and grow into q
terrible gale from that direction. The
lakes surface WINS packed with minia-
turc icclergs, and these were hurled lack
by the gale with such tremendous force
that an iInpenetrable dam was formed in
the neck'of the lnke from which Niagara
river flows, and tho great current Of
water which finds it's way from tho lake
III the rushing channel of that stream, 10
bc dashed over the gigantic prccipice Mt
the falls, was so held in check that not
more than one-qunrtcr of its usual vol
umo could find passage through tho
immense pack Of ice. .a-. Il.
AS this pack was stubborn, it was
naturally but n very short time before
tho falls had drained nearly all the water
out of the river. This, of course, oc-
Cured during the night, and we people
| who livo1 i'll Niagara village knew moth
ihg of the phenomena until next morn
ing. l remember that l awoke very
carly that morning, with the sense Of
something exceedingly strange expressing
me. 1t was some time before I discov-
cred That the feeling came from the fact
that the noise Of the cataract was almost
missing. dumped out of bed, and OH
leaving the house found that scores of
others had been awakened by the same
| circumstance, and were huIrying toward
tho falls TO see what the trouble was.
We found that the great niagara fclls
was only about one-qunrter of its former
volume.
1--WE Ind not heard of the trouble at
Lake Erie, and the terrible thought that
the falls were running dry created feel
ing OF alarm not easily imaginable. Tho
American channel had dwindled to n
creek i'll comparison with its original pro-
portions, whilo the British channel re-
sembled some ordinary river in the
drouGhts Of August. Goat island was as
big rs two Goat islands, rs the water had
shrunk from every side of it, leaving n
wide eXpanse of wet, Shiny jagged rocks,
which no eye in that vicinity had ever
seen before. Tho bed of the Canadian
rapids, far out into tho stream, was dry,
as was the space between the lower end
OF Goat island, and out beyond the
tower The rocks thus exposed were
black and forbidding, giving the dry
river bed the appearance of tract of
chnrrcd stumps. The Three Sisters
looked forlorn i'll theft enhanced dimcn-
sions. Tho great jet of water which had
from time out of mind lcapcd into the air
about 300 yards south Of this group of
islands i'll the great rapids, and which is
icaping there to-day, was not leaping
/ that morning, and, as some one ro-
marked that day, tho tremendous roar of
Niagara had subsidized to moan.
The sccne was at once dcsolatc.
It.Dt, -
picture will never leave my mind. Tho
whole village was ont exploring caves,
dark rccesscs, curious formations in tho
rocks and other remarkable features of
tho cataract and rapids that no mortal
eye had probably ever gazcd upon before.
These explorations were made safely to
the very brink of the Horseshoe rapids.
y Mr. 1Iolley drove horse and buggy
from the head of Goat island clear to the
SPOT where the leaping jet of water Ind
always writhcd and foancd. lie also
cut several sticks Of timber near the brink
OF Horseshoe falls, had them hewed there
and hauled them away with four horses.
These Gticks-thcy were large, fine TIM
bcrs-aro i'll the frame of some house at
Tho falls now. This remarkable condi-
tion of affairs at the cataract continued
al day, and showed no signs of change
@hen tho people went TO bed that night.
When we arose in the morning, however
the old familiar thunder of tho falls was
again shaking the earth as before and
The river ard rapids wcro again the
seethinS. whirling, irresistible torrent of
Old. The ice in the lake had shifted
again, and some time in tho night the
long restrained volume of water had
rushed down and claimed it's own."